by Adrian Gibson

First published in the The Tribune under the byline, Young Man's View, here…

One notes that the controversy is starting to brew about the proposed November 6 Constitutional referendum, which is daily becoming deeply mired in the political and historical hangovers and jostling of the failed 2002 referendum.

It seems to be gradually evolving into a FNM versus PLP thing, where there are those within who think it’s time to return the favour and yet others who are pressing for a favourable vote as this exercise supersedes all political partisanship.

As the days go on, I have heard arguments ranging from bill number four being advanced to “backdoor in same sex marriages” to persons expressing feelings that if bill number two is passed, “foreign men will come into the Bahamas, marry our women, get citizenship off of them, kick them in their (expletive) and then bring in the woman who they truly love, only to give her and their children citizenship.”

The government needs to dispel such feeling among the populace or risk seeking all of its Bills and the referendum itself go up in smoke!

Indeed, we need to eliminate all forms of discrimination from our constitution. In 2002, an effort – that was voted on by all Parliamentarians – sought to do so. However that was subsequently torpedoed by the PLP, who sought to gain political mileage leading into the 2002 general election.

I had just entered college before that referendum and I recall much of the narrative that was heavily weighted with much of the language we see being used today, from “Haitians will come and breed up our women,” to “Englishmen will come, sex our women, get citizenship and then bring in their true loves” to “the government is trying to promote sissying”, and so on.

Yes, Bahamians are – quite honestly – xenophobic, anti-gay and there is a very deep, religious/conservative movement. Combined with the failed gambling referendum and the government’s disregard of the people’s vote and a belief that this government is not entirely honest in its proclamations to the Bahamian people – unless we have a moral purgation in the next three months – these bills will fail. The bills won’t fail because they are wrong, but because of what I have stated above and the fact that they seem rushed.

I will review and further breakdown each one of the Bills next week, but based on everything I’m seeing and hearing, everyone seems to be fanning the flames at this time. Let me say that whatever changes are made relative to the removal of discrimination from the Constitution, the government needs to constantly and consistently clarify – along with the church – that there is absolutely no chance of same sex marriages occurring in this country due to any constitutional changes.

People are very, very concerned about that. The referendum seems rushed and many Bahamians are under the impression that the government is ramming it down our collective throats. November 6 needs to be reconsidered in order to allow for an educational campaign. That said, at this rate, I’m willing to predict that the Bills will be pulled as the Christie Administration would perhaps soon perceive that they cannot pass in such a short span of time.

I’ve talked to several women and men this week and more women than men have told me that they will vote no. One notes that a lot of the prejudices we see today are deeply rooted and, in many ways, relate to the reality of life in the Bahamas where the vast majority of children are born out of wedlock (among other social issues).

The fact that Sean McWeeney shockingly said that the Constitutional Commission has “no horse in the race” reminds people of Mr Christie’s comments about the gaming referendum last year, before the government turned around and decided that they would move to legalise web shop gaming (against the outcome of that referendum). Mr McWeeney’s use of that metaphor represented a less than ideal choice of words of his part and conjured up memories in the minds of the public that I am certain the government would wish to be forgotten.

As the conversation heats up, the governing party’s own rhetoric – circa 2002 – seems to be coming back to haunt them. I would say that before irreparable damage is done to the standing of our country and future referenda, the government should delay the referendum by three to four months to allow for proper education and increase the likelihood of questions being voted on favourably.